St. Landry democrat. (Opelousas, La.) 1878-1894, 1887-02-19


wavered and fell back once more
A curious fact added to the complications
of the fight at Donelson. The Confederate
forces were largely uniformed in brown jeans.
! The dead leaves of the scrub oak were almost
| the exact color of this cloth. The Federal
| forces, therefore, i'll climbing the abatis, could
not tell what was leaves and what was Con-
federate soldiers till line of fire in their faces
told them the difference.
| The third time Morrisons brigade stormed
| the heights. This time they climbed quite to
the rifle pits. The line in front Of them was
one sheet Of fire, awful and deadly Just
then musket hall struck Col Morrison in the
| hip. The future Illinois political leader reeled
in his saddle and then fell to the ground That
ended the desperate assault, and Maney's bat
terry remained untaken.
Another of the curious incidents of war.
and sad one, happened here. The flashes
from the guns set fire to the thickly cluster
ing dead leaves. They famed up like dry
straw, consuming the dead, dying and
wounded soldiers who lay about in some spots
as thickly as the leaves themselves A con-
siderable number of the helpless ones were
burned to death. Col Heman, who had dis
tinguished himself at Fort Henry. was in
command of the Confederates at Maney's bat
terry. His men leaped over in front of their
works, after the assault, and saved such as
they could.
So the night of Thursday, the 18th, came
and wore away. Up to the arrival of Lew
Wallace, on Friday, the Federal forces en-
gagged numbered only Is, 900 men, The enemy
did not know it, but they were without sup
plies. The roads were too heavy to transport
and bod
around by water. The morning of the 18th
the Union soldiers We're absolutely without
food
During the night a storm of snow and Sleet
came on. 1t was terrible. The men had not
dared to sleep during the night. They could
not build fires, for these would have been
merely SO many targets for musketry and ar
tillery from the fort There were no shelter
tents for them. Dawn found them numb and
stiff with the cold, their clothing wet through
to the skin and frozen ON their backs. Col
Crafts j. Wright, Thirteenth Missouri, sat
upon log wrapped in his blanket till 3 O'Clock
in the morning.
So the Federal soldiers stood the night
through At dawn the light began to shine
upon bitterly cold day. Fires were built
toward the rear then, and companies, in turn
lSiIsN oiIS ttiiolucl, NSiib DdIh tltil1 tud"Cu
their frozen garments and made coffee.
But they had no food, not bite. Their
only breakfast was coffee, and thus they made
ready to face the day.
For the Confederates in the fort it was not
a whit more comfortable. They lay upon
their arms all night in the trenches. And
yet nobody on either side was disheartened
The Confederate soldiers were full of fight
and enthusiasm. At noon the Federal Gen
Lew Wallace and his Third division of miu-
gled veterans and raw recruits arrived into
camp in the center with cheers and SOD gs
and bugles sounding Gen. Wallace i1,de
Immediately to Grants headquarters and
dined with him on crackers and coffee The
general was nearly as badly off as his men,
1t was this day that the interchap ge of
courtesies between the feet and the fU.t took
place.
Meantime there was not much figh ting on
land. Re-enforcements were arriving for
Grant, and were being posted.
Grants troops were distributed over line
nearly four miles long. His own head
quarters were at the log house of Mrs. Crisp,
two miles from Dover, at the head of Hick-
man creek. It was little to the left of the
center of his army, and between the divisions
of Lew Wallace and Gen. c. F. Smith.
SO having arranged matters to suit him.